About Soccer

Don’t know much about soccer (known as “football” almost everywhere in the world except the United States)? This overview will help you gain a better understanding of the game.

THE BASICS

• Soccer is played on a field 100 yards long and 60 yards wide. At each end there is a goal 24 feet wide and 8 feet tall.
• The object of the game is to kick the soccer ball into the opposing team’s goal. One point is scored for each goal.
• A soccer game consists of two halves of 45 minutes each, separated by a 15-minute halftime.
  • The scoreboard shows a continually running clock throughout the game; however, the referee tracks time when the ball is out of play and adds time to the end of each half. Thus, a half typically runs a minute or two longer than 45 minutes

THE PLAYERS

• Each team has ten players and a goalkeeper.
• All players are allowed to touch and move the ball with their feet, legs, head and chest. The goalkeeper (a.k.a. goalie) is the only player allowed to touch the ball with his hands, and only within a certain marked area around the goal.
• There are essentially three positions on a soccer team: defenders, mid-fielders and forwards:
  • The defender’s primary role is to keep the opposing team’s forwards from scoring. Defenders are sometimes called backs or fullbacks.
  • The mid-fielder’s primary role is to control the ball and pass it to his team’s forwards. The mid-fielders are sometimes called halfbacks.
  • The forward’s primary role is to score goals. Forwards are sometimes called strikers.

REFEREES & PENALTIES

• There is one referee on the field controlling the game, and three assistants: one on each end of the field and one in the middle handling substitutions. The main job of the two end assistants is to watch for off-sides, which is when a forward is closer to the opposing team’s goal than that goal’s defender.
• When a player performs an illegal activity, such as touching the ball with a hand or fouling (e.g. pushing, kicking, tripping, holding) another player, the referee gives a free kick or a penalty kick to the opposing team.
  • A free kick allows the fouled player to kick the ball from the place where the foul occurred.
  • A penalty kick is a free shot at the goal, without the protection of the defenders – only the kicker and the goalkeeper are allowed within the 18-yard box in front of the goal. A penalty kick is given only when a foul occurs within the goalkeeper’s box.
• The referee can give yellow and red cards to players who exhibit excessive and/or purposeful misconduct.
  • A yellow card is essentially a warning; if a player accumulates two yellow cards in the course of a game he is immediately expelled from the game. His team has to play one man down the rest of the game.
  • A red card is an immediate expulsion from the game.

OUT OF BOUNDS

• If the ball is kicked out of bounds on either sideline, a player from the opposing team gets to throw it back in. He can only throw from straight over his head and both feet must be on the ground.
• If a player kicks the ball out of bounds on either side of the opposing team’s goal, the goalkeeper or another member of the opposing team gets a goal kick, in which he kicks the ball back into play.
• If a player kicks the ball out of bounds on either side of his own team’s goal, a player from the opposing team gets a corner kick, in which he kicks the ball back into play from a corner of the field.

DRAWS & WINS

• Rules differ according to tournament, but in the FIFA World CupTM, a game can end in a draw (i.e., a tie) during the group stages.
• Once the competition moves to the round of 16 and beyond, each game must have a winner.
  • If at the end of regulation time a game is tied, two extra halves of 15 minutes each are played.
  • If after this the game is still tied, teams move on to a penalty shootout, which consists of five penalty kicks for each team (i.e., a player kicking the ball toward the goal with only the goalkeeper defending). Each penalty kick must be kicked by a different player, and the team scoring the most goals wins.
  • If after this the game is still tied, penalty kicks continue, one per team, until one team scores and the other misses.